Fire Mountain: an island in Oceanside

By Joe Tash, SPECIAL TO THE UNION-TRIBUNE
| 12:04 a.m.April 29, 2010

With a mix of mini-mansions and modest homes and winding, hilly streets rising above a shopping
center, Fire Mountain is one of Oceanside’s most distinctive neighborhoods.
— John Gastaldo / UNION-TRIBUNE

With a mix of mini-mansions and modest homes and winding, hilly streets rising above a shopping
center, Fire Mountain is one of Oceanside’s most distinctive neighborhoods.
— John Gastaldo / UNION-TRIBUNE

OCEANSIDE  Funky. Eclectic. Upscale. Rural. These words and their associated images might seem contradictory, but all are used by residents of Oceanside’s Fire Mountain to describe their community.

“It has a rustic, rural nature to it, even though it’s in the city. It’s very unique, it sits up high, and many … two-story buildings have a view of the ocean. It just has a flavor to it,” said Harriett Bledsoe, who moved to the neighborhood with her husband in the 1960s.

“I like the trees; I like the quiet; I like the views,” said Kris Nelson, an artist and a co-founder of Friends of Fire Mountain, an activist group. “It almost feels like you’re on the top of the mountain. (There are) lots of people who walk, so you can meet your neighbors when you take your dog for a walk. People are genuinely friendly here.”

With a mix of imposing mini-mansions and modest homes and winding, hilly streets — most without sidewalks — Fire Mountain is one of Oceanside’s most distinctive neighborhoods. The community was annexed into the city in the 1960s after being known for decades as North Carlsbad, an unincorporated island surrounded by Oceanside.

Fire Mountain is bordered by Interstate 5 to the west, Oceanside Boulevard to the north, El Camino Real to the east and state Route 78 to the south. It includes Palmquist Elementary and Lincoln Middle schools, Eternal Hills Memorial Park and the Walmart shopping center near Route 78.

Over the years, residents have taken stands on major issues, such as rezoning to allow apartments, a plan to widen streets through the community into major thoroughfares and expansion of the cemetery, which is now under way. Each time, residents said, they were able to gain valuable concessions that helped preserve the neighborhood.

Residents stage such events as an annual “killer” yard sale and an art show.

Opinions vary on how the neighborhood acquired its name. Some say Indians used the mountain to light signal fires. others say it came from the mountain’s fiery sunset vistas.

Kristi Hawthorne, president of the Oceanside Historical Society, said the earliest references to Fire Mountain can be found on topographical maps from the 1860s, before Oceanside existed. Hawthorne said the designation, and another for Wire Mountain on Camp Pendleton, may have been created by surveyors who needed to name the landmarks they encountered.

Jim Downs, whose family bought 26 acres in Fire Mountain in the early 1930s (Downs Street is named for his father), recalled when the area was covered with avocado and citrus groves, and populated by poor families during the Depression. As a 9-year-old, Downs said he used to ride horses through the area and hunt for squirrels and rabbits with a .22-caliber rifle.

Now retired, the former teacher said he favored some of the projects, such as the shopping center, that many in the neighborhood opposed.

“NIMBYism in Fire Mountain is a way of life,” he said.

“Fire Mountain is not just a geographical area. It has personality, it has character and characters,” Downs said. “There’s a state of mind that we’re somehow special, and maybe we are.”